How do you make a shadow box? That’s a great question. First, you need to categorize your tools – screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, crimpers, etc. Or you can randomly place the tools and open each drawer every time you need to find something – it’s up to you. Now that you have your tools categorized, we can start cutting out the foam. We like to use a darker foam color on top and a brighter foam color on the bottom so you can see the outline better. We used this two-colored foam and it worked flawlessly.

How do you cut the outlines in the foam? That’s another great question. It depends on what you have available. Of course, everybody can opt to hand cut them with a razor blade, but unless you have the hand stability of a brain surgeon, it doesn’t always turn out that great. You can use a laser cutter (very expensive for the build volume you would need), a CNC router (the drill bit doesn’t always leave you with nice, clean edges), or build your own 3-axis machine and stick a cutting pen on it. Once you decide on what to cut it with, measure the length and width of each drawer of your tool chest and cut out those dimensions on the foam (both pieces).

Okay, we have the foam cut out for each drawer – start laying your tools out on the foam pieces. If you’re cutting by hand, trace out the outline of each tool and start cutting them out. Remember, only cut out the darker piece of foam. If you’re using a laser or CNC router, this gets a little tricky since we need to make the toolpath for the machine to follow. On some lasers, you can stick the foam with your strategically-placed tools on it into the chamber, take a picture with the onboard camera, export the picture to your favorite drawing software, then use the drawing tools to make the outlines and create the toolpath. With other lasers and CNC routers, you don’t have this luxury. You’ll need to manually take the picture, scale it correctly, draw the outlines, then create the toolpath. Doesn’t that sound like a fun and challenging project? It does indeed.

These shadow boxes are used in many different types of industries – automotive, aerospace and defense, any manufacturing plant. If we’re building a plane, helicopter, or rocket, you don’t want to leave any tools behind in those, right? There have been a few instances in history where this has happened and it caused the aerial vehicle to crash. Don’t be a repeat – learn from others’ mistakes.

Organization doesn’t just apply to your tools, it applies to every aspect of your life. You must stay organized wherever you can as it is a reflection of your professionalism and sometimes even the quality of your work. For example, if your manager comes to you and asks about your design for the engine controller on a helicopter, you want to be able to find the design as quickly as possible so you’re not wasting the manager’s or your time. I certainly wouldn’t want to wait for 10 minutes while you search for it.

What did we learn?